IGF 2016 Spotlight on: Prison Air
As I continue wading through the 775 entrants in this year’s Independent Games Festival, whittling my way to a highly polished list of the Top Twenty, I thought I’d highlight some of my favorites.
Ya know what game never got the respect it deserved? PAIN on PlayStation 3. Its clever, crude and hilarious ragdoll gameplay was always overshadowed by the commercial tie-ins and frequent paid DLC expansions. I loved it though, and it’s been way too long since someone got close to the concept. Enter Prison Air, a delightfully irreverent game where you launch prisoners via catapult towards a prison while aiming to hit as much stuff as possible with their limp bodies.
It’s expanded considerably since the initial game jam version with a story mode (as inexplicable as that may seem), objectives, minigames and secrets. Like PAIN before it there’s just something satisfying about tossing people around like literal ragdolls and breaking stuff. Call me simple but it looks like great fun! Prison Air from Pointless Button Studios is in Early Access at the moment but I’m very much looking forward to its final release.
